UK prime minister threatens to censor press

A chap has to do what a chap has to do

UK prime minister David "one is an ordinary bloke" Cameron has threatened the British press that he will bring in censorship if they do not do what he tells them.

Cameron wants the UK press to stop publishing Snowden leaks, which always show that the US and UK are being total rotters to their allies. Now he has hinted that unless they bow to his will he will do something to stop the presses.

According to the Guardian, Cameron said that he would rather "talk to the press" and lecture them endlessly about social responsibility. This is a little ironic as most of the Snowden stories have shown how the US and UK spying organisations are acting without any sense of responsibility at all.

Nevertheless Cameron painted a picture of high court injunctions or the use of D notices to prevent the publication of information that could damage national security.

He claimed that there were dangers of a "lah-di-dah, airy-fairy view" about the dangers of leaks. But he warned it would be difficult to avoid acting if newspapers declined to heed government advice.

Cameron told MPs: "We have a free press, it's very important the press feels it is not pre-censored from what it writes and all the rest of it.

In other words it is only a free press if it publishes what one says.

Cameron has already been in the chilling position of sending black suits around to the Guardian to smash up hard drives and made arbitrary arrests of journalists' partners.

It did not change anything because the Guardian carried on reporting NSA files from its New York office.

Cameron had said that the oversight of Britain's intelligence agencies may have to evolve. He claimed that he had strengthened the oversight of the intelligence and security committee.

The threats to UK press freedom comes after the publication of revelations that the US has monitored the mobile phone of the German chancellor Angela Merkel. That is the sort of thing that Cameron wants to keep from us finding out about.